God Among Us: A Mother's Son

"What can you do when a city's half drowned?"

Writer: Alexandria Riley
Format: Audio
Released: June 2019
Series: Torchwood 6.09

Featuring: Captain Jack, Yvonne, Tyler, Orr, Andy

Synopsis

Cardiff has suffered a catastrophic flood. Dozens are still missing. Survivors fill camps across the city. An inquiry has been set up to find out what happened.

Bethan's comes to the city looking for answers. Her son is among the missing and no-one seems to want to help her find him. It's starting to look like there's a cover-up. What is Torchwood? Can it really be behind it?

Verdict

A Mother's Son kicked off the third and final volume of God Among Us in pretty average style it has to be said. This was an interesting adventure and followed on from where Eye of the Storm left things, but after such an impactful cliffhanger I was really hoping for a lot more. This was definitely just setting the scene for what will hopefully be a much improved final three stories of Torchwood's official sixth series. What was left of Cardiff was incredibly eery and with it being a city that I know extremely well, some of the descriptions were rather harrowing. The city was essentially a mess and the idea of camps was a little disturbing. Apart from the physical damage that was caused by the tsunami at the hands of the Committee, some of Cardiff's description seemed quite apt and relevant given the current state in society with the coronavirus outbreak. I found it very interesting that Alexandria Riley wrote the episode given that she plays Ng and she would have had some good character insight. Instead, her whole story was completely centred around Bethan. I wasn't a huge fan of that and it might sound harsh, but I just didn't care about her efforts to find her son. If I knew who she was prior to the episode then my feelings would have been completely different. It did provide a good account of how much the flood had changed the lives of everyday people who had sadly lost loved ones, but the lack of familiarity was not overly appealing. There was nothing at all wrong with her character though, it was just a personal preference. I also thought the episode was a little slow being focused on the enquiry. I did like how it was revealed that Yvonne was responsible for filling the water supply with retcon that ridded all of those asked about the flood and who warned them to either evacuate or put up defence to reveal who had warned them. Captain Jack didn't feature much at all which was a shame, but his efforts to bring down Yvonne after all she had done were great. He knew she was a traitor now and that had to be brought down. It was also interesting to explore the relationship, or what's left of it, between Yvonne and Andy as well after all that went on during the last boxset. Orr returning was an unexpected but pleasant moment and I like that she can't remember who she is. Her desire to just please would backfire on her and the idea of a queue outside of her tent at the end as society made their demands to see their loved ones for just a moment was a little horrifying. I felt incredibly sorry for her. Colin and Tyler had relatively quiet stories as well and I didn't understand why Mr Colchester didn't appear. It definitely seems that the cast have been spread around a little more during this series. Bethan's defiance to get the answers she felt she deserved was very good and definitely her best trait. I liked that instead of a lousy minute silence as she essentially called it, every night her and a number of others would take part in an hour's silence. That must have been incredibly powerful and the silence alone would speak volumes and ask all that would be required. Bethan, with Jack's help, revealing the Torchwood involvement was decent but it should have been a lot more impactful in my opinion. There weren't really any dramatic elements in the revelation which didn't feel right. Yvonne and Bethan at the end was a good conversation, but I wasn't a massive fan of not knowing whether Bethan did indeed take up Yvonne's offer to lose the memories of her son. I would massively lead to no, but it seems I'll never know. Overall, an interesting tale but it needed a serious injection of excitement.

Rating: 6/10